Russian mom posts about things that happen in and around her kitchen

Soups

The stuff my husband brings from farmers markets nowadays makes me want to shake the winter hibernation off with some fresh healthy recipes. I know, right? What’s happening to me?! Well, I guess all the things green and juicy and flavorful, and not kale are quite inspiring. Plus they are reminding that there is a slight (very slight, but…) chance of sunny days on the horizon, and low possibly (but still a possibility!!!) of a t-shirt-kind of day, and that perhaps we should get into a t-shirt appropriate shape!

While the food blogs are overtaken by sweets and flowers, and my own Valentine’s chocolate cake is sitting in the fridge awaiting the second coat of ganache; I decided to write about something less festive today. After all, most likely tomorrow is still going to be February; most likely – cold; and most likely you will be ready to jump back on a diet following the sweet Valentine.

Pick and rinse the beans. Place in a bowl, cover with water and soak for about 4 hours.

Drain the beans and place in a saucepan with water to cover by about 1 inch (2.5 cm). Bring to boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the beans are tender for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours.

Warm the olive oil in a soup pot. Add onion, garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the stock, tomatoes, carrot, zucchini, cabbage, basil, oregano, sugar, and bay leaf. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook for another 10 minutes. Drain the beans and add them to the pot with the balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve hot, garnishing with parsley and shredded Parmesan cheese.

The lazy version of this recipe is perfect for your crock pot collection. Saute (or not) the onion and garlic, and dump all the ingredients but parsley and cheese in a crock pot, add 1.5 cups of water and cook on low for 8 hours.

There are people who take the whole “back to school” craze rather seriously. I know a family that makes 60-70 frozen meals before each year starts. All ladies from their clan gather to spend a day or two chopping, cooking, packaging, and labeling… Pretty impressive, hah!? I tried to accomplish something like that before our second child arrived, though baby Pea ended up being an angel (who said women are high-maintenance?) and unlike her brother devoted her infant days to snoozing. So, my extreme food storage proved to be unnecessary.

However, with time I did appreciate all the stuff in the freezer. So, a new tradition was started. Now we make extra and stow our favorites for the days, when there is no time to make a fresh dinner.

Here is one of those recipes. All you need on the serving day is some bread or croutons!

“Journal, I’m on a sugar cleanse. I haven’t had any sugar in over three weeks. I think I’m experiencing withdrawal. Today I screamed at a plant. I don’t know why I decided to do this. It’s crazy. There’s sugar in everything. Did you know that? Everything. Even cupcakes. All right, I have to go, Journal. You’re being a jerk.”

My neighbor let me borrow her Ellen DeGeneres book, and I couldn’t resist copying this passage as there is nothing that could describe my feelings better, and I’m not even on a cleanse! Today’s Russian recipe doesn’t use any sugar for a change, though I’m sure the evil thing has snuck in there anyways!

This beet soup would probably be one of the first items that pops up if you google “Russian cuisine”. However, being more of a pastry person while growing up, I skipped all the borscht hype. Eight months ago our family was invited to a Russian dinner that completely changed my attitude. A few… quite a few.. disastrous attempts later I am finally proud to present my vegetarian version of this famous Russian dish.

Traditionally borscht is made with beef broth and beets (of course), and there are a million different ways to prepare it. I found my favorite recipe on another US blog written by a Russian mom. Here it’s modified to fit our tastes. Though, if you are looking for the original meaty version, I cannot recommend a better place than Sofya’s blog!

Preheat the oven to 400⁰F/200⁰C. Wrap the beets in foil, punching a few holes in each bundle. Bake the beets for about 1-1.5 hours.

Pour vegetable broth into a large soup pot, and let it come to a boil. While the broth is warming up, preheat a frying pan, melt the butter on it, and sauté carrots, turnip, and onion in it until the vegetables are very soft and juicy (for about 10 minutes). Add tomato paste, and steer, letting it to melt and incorporate.

Once the beets are baked, remove them from the foil, peel, and shred.

Dump the sautéed vegetables, beets, cabbage, potatoes, chili peppers, bay leaves, cloves, and peppercorns into the broth, and let boil for another 10 minutes. When the potatoes are cooked, add lemon juice, salt, and garlic. Your goal is to find the perfect balance between sweet and sour when putting together the final ingredients. My babushka actually adds sugar, if the beets are not sweet enough. It’s all about pleasing your taste buds!

Make ahead: the vegetarian borscht will keep well in the freezer for up to 6 months. Cool it, pour it in freezer-safe zip lock bags, and let lay flat in the freezer. The meat version should be ok for up to 3 months.

Four days with no meat and we haven’t turned green yet! Apparently there are some delicious choices in the vegetarian world! Who would have thought!!!

This recipe is a combination of two summer soups my babushka used to make. Baby Pea and I hit the jackpot at the San Francisco Ferry Building farmers market – nettle and sorrel! I wasn’t patient enough to cook separate meals with all that goodness on my hands.

One has to be extra careful when playing with nettle as it … ouch!!! stings! with skin burns and everything. If you are in New Zealand, I’d stay away from nettle all together, since you have some scary poisonous stuffgrowing there.

On my part, however, there are no doubts in nettle’s healing powers. Not because of what I find in Wikipedia , but because I grew up believing a shirt made out of nettle (especially the kind that grows by graveyards boo-ha-ha) can break evil spells. I’m talking of pour Elisa’s story from Anderson’s “Wild Swans” of course.

Fairy tales aside, the soup is magic in its own right. Here is how to make it:

Bring water or stock to a boil. Add potatoes and let boil on low heat for about 10 minutes. If desired, sauté onions and carrots, add them to the soup.

Meanwhile boil about 3 cups of water. Carefully place nettle in a colander, and pour boiling water over it. Your nettle should not be stingy any more!

Remove stems and chop sorrel and the nettle, divide between the soup bowls.

Shell the eggs and dice them. Distribute with the sorrel/nettle mixture.

Once the potatoes are cooked, adjust the broth flavor with salt and pepper, pour the soup into the bowls. The sorrel leaves will turn brown and very soft, while nettle will release it’s special flavor and get even brighter and greener.

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Добро Пожаловать! Welcome!

Privet! My name is Anastasia. I was born and raised in Russia, and moved to the States in my early 20s. I am a stay-at-home mom of two beautiful babies and a wife of their wonderful dad. I’m living the dream, loving my family to pieces, and getting lost in books when I’m not busy chasing the kids around the house!